The Return Of Chosen Ones

Part 1

  I could feel the leaves crackle underneath my boots, getting in the way of their wind driven paths. It was that cold, sharp, New England air. It felt strangely like home, a home I hadn't ever wanted to come back to, once I remembered it was here. It wasn't the burnt orange leaves on the trees, or the house at the end of the gravel path that made me feel so sick, so overwhelmed with punches of nostalgia to my stomach. It was the fact that I knew there was a girl who I didn't deserve suffering on the inside of those 4 walls.

I felt a hand, a warm, soft hand, wrap around mine. I shifted my eyes to see the tall brunette standing by my side, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand. I leaned my head on her shoulder.
"You sure you want to do this?" She asked me. "We can always come back later if you aren't ready."

"I ready, Dani," I said. Dani was my girlfriend, someone who was able to get through to me, when no one else seemed to be there. I met her in San Francisco, during my second month of amnesic confusion. It had started to fade by then, I could remember names, faces, but not anything deeper than the surface. Dani helped me remember. I'd tell her everything, every time I remembered another painstaking detail of my life novel.

We walked slowly, feet crunching on the ground. I could feel the fluttering of my heart, the same feeling that had shot through me many times before. I knew she was waiting for me, she was always waiting. In fact, I was able to sense and see her on occasion. She would sit on the roof and look out over the treetops, through the miles of forest, hoping I'd be there, maybe by the cliffs that overlooks the sea. But I never was. 

We reached the door. Dani wrapped her hand around my arm. She could sense the tension in my veins; this place, coming back to it, was like reopening a book years after it was finished. I knocked on the door. I heard the wood floors creak, and the turn of the doorknob. I tapped my foot fast, trying to calm the rest of my body down. My heart almost fell out of my chest, when that door opened up, revealing Genevieve.

"Holy fuck," she said. She stepped back for a second, and had the widest electric blue eyes, that I had once fallen deeply in love with. They were glossy, and seemed to be revived from a long time of being worn down. She lunged towards me, and Dani took a step aside. Genevieve wrapped her arms around my neck, her hands pushing up my hair, as she held onto me tightly. I wrapped my arms around her waist, they fit just right. I could feel her tears, as they dropped onto my neck, skidding off of her forearms.

"I fucking love you," she whispered in a muzzled tone, as her mouth was pressed against her shirts sleeves. She pulled back a little, and I looked into her eyes. They were alive. They felt like home, and I had just retreated to them. She had a way of making me fall back in, only this time, I new I wasn't in love. I knew I couldn't be in love, because loving her just hurt too much.

"Whose this?" She asked me, looking over at Dani, who was smiling. 

"Genevieve..." I began. I couldn't look her in the eyes, because this would kill whatever light she had.

"Holy shit!" I heard Shannon from inside the house. I looked up, and I saw Shan in the doorway. And Kate, and Julie, and Zane. "The hell are you doing here?"

They all hugged me, even Zane, who before this had avoided any physical contact with me. He still cared about me, and it torn him apart knowing I couldn't be in love with him, solely because I wasn't attracted to guys. 

"Whose your friend, Ar?" Julie asked me. Dani peeled off the wall, that her shoulder was leaning on. She took a step forward, and extended her hand. 

"I'm Dani," she said. Julie shook her hand. "I'm Ari's girlfriend."

The shot was fired. Straight into Genevieve's heart. I could feel her pulse sink into her stomach, her eyes drained every ounce of light they once had. Her lips parted a bit, leaving a disappointed frown on her face. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that I showed up here, after almost 10 months, with a new girlfriend, almost entirely forgetting Genevieve existed. Some part of me felt like I had betrayed her. But the other part felt like I should run over, jump into her arms and kiss her, feel her warmth on my lips and her breath against my pale skin. 

"Ari," Shannon said to me. "Does she..."

"Yes she knows everything," I said loudly. Everyone seemed to breathe easy about that. They knew I only trust certain people, and if I trust her, they can too. 

"Let's go inside," Kate said. "We all gotta have a talk."

Everyone made their way inside. Dani followed them, but I felt a hand wrap around my wrist, before I was able to go inside. I turned and saw Genevieve staring deep into my soul, through my translucent shell.

"Girlfriend?" Genevieve asked, as she appeared to be choking on the words, their venom seeping into her throat.

"Yeah..." I began. "Its complicated between you and I. You didn't know I was alive, and I barely remembered you. I moved on Genevieve."

"I still love you," she said, the words that have always been so hard for her to say slipping out of her hands. 

"I love you, too," I said. "But Dani's good for me."

Genevieve dropped my wrist, and my hands fell to my side, as I walked in through the front door. The house seemed odd for me; being here felt wrong, felt different, felt...foreign. But it also felt warm. I glanced over at the window seat I had my first kiss with Genevieve in. And the bookcase where I used to keep the box with the dagger in. The kitchen where I met Santana and where Zane got shot. It was all still the same. Same colors, same furniture, same people.